Safety Tips - Home

Don't take safety for granted.

Your well-being is your sole responsibility. Keep your eyes open and look out for yourself.
While you're at it, open the eyes of others you know by sharing these potentially
life-saving safety and security tips with them. In doing so, you just might prevent
your friends, family members from becoming the next crime victim.

Have a family security plan and rehearse it. It is very important to have family discussions of security in general. The discussion should include how to deal with various crime situations at home and away. There should be a plan with role of each family member in each crime scenario, emergency phone numbers and emergency escape routes etc. Without a family security plan, you and your family will be left completely unprepared in the event such a horrid crime should occur. As a result, everyone will be left to their natural "fight or flight" instincts - a reaction that could very well be the wrong response.

Don’t be an easy target. Risk versus reward—that's how burglars determine if your home will be their next target. One of the easiest ways to increase the risk to potential intruders is implementing visible layers of security. The more visible they are, the more likely criminals will be deterred from viewing your home as an easy target.

Look for areas around your residence in which perpetrators can hide. Cut back bushes and other landscaping and increase lighting to eliminate dark, shadowy areas.

If you are going to be away for several days on vacation, ask a neighbor or relatives to collect all newspapers and/or ads left on your driveway, doorstep or doorknob while you are gone. Doing so will give burglars one less visible clue that your home is unoccupied.

Do not place empty boxes from expensive items such as computers, stereo equipment, DVD players, TVs etc., out on the street with your garbage. This may indicate to burglars on the prowl that you have something worth stealing. Break down the boxes, cut them up, and conceal them in plastic garbage bags before placing them in your garbage.

Make it appear someone is home. Many burglars want to get in and out of a home without being seen. So breaking into a home that is not occupied is what burglars prefer. By installing security devices that help give the impression that someone is home even when you’re not, you can further decrease the chance of your home becoming a target.

Timers can be used to randomly switch on and off lights to give an impression someone is home.

Secure external doors and windows. Protecting your home from burglary is all about the layers. Because burglars determine their targets through risk vs. reward scenarios, the more security measures you put in place to increase the risk and lessen the reward for would-be intruders, the less likely your home will be viewed as an easy target. Secure external doors and windows are an important layer of home security.

Doors constructed of solid wood or metal and use only door hinges that are reinforced with 2- to 3-inch steel screws.

Install quality dead bolts and security door braces that have the ability to withstand up to 1800 lbs of pressure. Both will make it extremely difficult for an intruder to kick down your door.

Install Peepholes with wide-angle lenses that are within viewing level.

Windows that are reinforced with glass protection film and or internal window grills are highly effective security measure.

All accessible windows and glass patio doors that slide sideways should have a metal rod or solid wooden bar inserted into the track.

Windows that slide up and down should have an anti-lift mechanism installed on the interior of the window.

Installing window open limiter locks on all windows prevents the window from being opened wide enough for someone to fit through.

Watch out for security loophole situations. Where there is a strong layer of perimeter security such as electric fence, criminals often wait for security loopholes to gain access into the property. For an example, the criminals wait for a vehicle to enter into the property via an automatic or manual gate and hide and sneek behind the vehicle to get into the property. Always makes sure to look out for anyone standing by or hiding near the gate before opening the gate from outside and be vigilant until the gate is closed from inside. The same caution should be practiced to open the gate to exit also.